You Could Be Challenged about That Los Angeles Archdiocesan Policies Have LED to a Lower Incidence of Clergy Sex Abuse, Says Archdiocesan Official, California Catholic Daily, December 20, 2007

You Could Be Challenged about That
Los Angeles Archdiocesan Policies Have LED to a Lower Incidence of Clergy Sex Abuse, Says Archdiocesan Official

California Catholic Daily
December 20, 2007

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=ee8caffb-1005-43b2-8a86-bb3275b5afb0

Incidents of sexual abuse of minors by clergy have dropped off dramatically since the mid-1980s, said Sister Sheila McNiff, writing in the Dec. 16 Los Angeles Times. Why is this, asked McNiff, coordinator of the Los Angeles archdiocese's Victims Assistance Ministry? Because, she said, the archdiocese has implemented effective sexual abuse policies.

A graph accompanying McNiff's article illustrated the rate of alleged abuse 1931-2006. During this period, 254 lay and clergy members allegedly abused the 553 people in involved in the civil cases against the archdiocese. Most of the cases were reported in 2003. "The graph shows that most of the abuse was clustered from the late 1950s to the early 1980s," wrote McNiff. "…By the mid-1980s, however, the graph shows that incidents drop off dramatically. For instance, while there were 49 offenders who abused victims in 1981, that number dropped to 11 in 1991, and there were none in 2001."

Cases of abuse dropped off in the mid 1980s, said McNiff, because, "beginning with the first published policies and procedures regarding clergy abuse in 1987, the archdiocese enacted ever more effective methods for dealing with claims of abuse by its priests, religious brothers and sisters and lay employees. These efforts included norms for appropriate behavior with children and young people, as well as the permanent removal from ministry of those found to have committed abuse."

The measures the archdiocese enacted, said McNiff, included preventive training programs for clergy and lay employees and volunteers, along with fingerprinting and criminal background checks. The archdiocese "placed greater emphasis on creating an atmosphere of openness in all of our parishes and schools. Children and young people are trained how to speak out about uncomfortable situations, and are told that they will be listened to and believed."

Cardinal Roger Mahony's dealings with Fr. Michael Stephen Baker were, ironically, contemporaneous with the archdiocese's implementation of sexual abuse policies. "Sometime in late 1986, Baker disclosed to me that he had problems in the past of acting out sexually with two minors," Mahony wrote in a May 17, 2002 letter to archdiocesan priests. "I offer my sincere, personal apologies for my failure to take firm and decisive action much earlier." From 1988 to 1995, Baker continued to reside in parishes, even serving as administrator at four parishes. Baker has been accused of molesting 20 youth.

According to a March 25, 2002 e-mail correspondence (leaked to the press), Msgr. Craig Cox advised Mahony that, when speaking to the press about molester priests, "to say or even give the impression that none of the 'priests removed' were in parish ministry creates multiple problems … Even those not in parish ministry were assisting in parishes, and you could be challenged about that. Some were resident in parishes. Not being assigned full time to parishes does not mean there was no parish ministry. All the men involved were doing Sunday supply at times. In the popular mind set that will be seen as parish ministry."

Cox recommended "that in your press conference you make no indication whatsoever of the 'type' of ministry involved, but indicate that no priest was put into any ministry where we had any concern that he would be a danger to young people. If asked to say more than that, you can respond by going back to your principles about not disclosing names...."